Progressives on Hypocrisy

Forward Progressives — Paul Ryan: The Ultimate Hypocrite:

Ran into this nice little screed on Paul Ryan that is a pretty good example of the "alternate universe" that "progressives" live in. To be "Progressive" or "liberal" is to have a keen sense of "hypocrisy" in others, but no mirror at all.

For a "progressive", the W deficits were horrible, but BO's are fine. Any use of military power under W was worthy of a protest, where under BO any military use, even without congressional approval is fine. Gitmo was a constant source of animus under W, now it is fine. Killing even Americans with drones? No problem with BO in the WH, under W? Killing ANYONE was "chilling" ... even terrorists deserved "constitutional rights", now not even Americans do if BO decides against it.

Now, let it be said that ANYONE with ANY standards is in fact a hypocrite -- or else your standards are so low as to not be worthy of being called "standards". ALL sin -- in many and various ways, so the only true non-hypocrites are guys like Slick Willie that never claimed to have any standards and did an excellent job of proving it!

The big difference here is that Ryan nor any Republican I know of ever said NO government!! Smaller than it is now, yes ... but maybe 15-20% of GDP vs the 25% it is today. Dealing with government is more like dieting than quitting smoking or drinking. Unless someone starts talking ZERO government or railing against having public schools, or benefits for children whose parents have died it is ridiculous to bring them into the discussion.

FICA **IS** a Ponzi scheme -- it just hasn't crashed yet. If we don't fix it, there will be no money for ANY. What Ryan wants to do is means test it to keep it helping those that truly need it and to characterize his approach otherwise is either stupid or disingenuous.

On budgets, spending and deficits, it is a discussion of degree. It is certainly hypocrisy to have railed against W deficits that were less than half BOs smallest to date at WORST, and in some cases 10% of BOs, and now be completely unconcerned and in fact cheering for larger deficits as is the case with Paul Krugman. Being OK with deficits that are smaller but concerned with those that are larger seems quite reasonable in may contexts -- two beers vs 12 for example makes a difference.

Do I believe that Ryan, W, and many Republicans were in the wrong to do medicare part D? Yes, I thought it was a fools errand at then and still do. I believe that their much smaller, but still excessive government spending was wrong. The problem is that government is often a "lesser of two evils" problem, ESPECIALLY if you are a conservative. The only folks that are going to be elected and be at all effective are POLITICIANS, so one is always hiring the equivalent of the fox to guard the henhouse!

To be a Christian means that I need to recognize that **I** am the "ultimate pile of garbage" ... but reading columns like this does provide the temptation to believe that some folks are worse! ;-)

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